A comparative study of biomechanical property of Küntscher nail and Otte-Plansee nail
Rabenseifner, L.; Hirasawa, Y.
Nihon Geka Hokan. Archiv für Japanische Chirurgie 56(3): 304-312
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-9152 PMID: 3689087 Document Number: 302623
The disadvantages of the conventional intramedullary nail caused OTTE's impulse to think over the principle of nailing7,9. The purpose of his work was to develop a nail of higher rotation stability with a modified geometrical shape. Besides, the fracture healing should be improved by the appropriated selection of implant material and the operation process should be simplified by the development of new tools2,3,4,6,10,11. By selecting a closed cross section with 6 sharp-edged longitudinal slides each representing 1/12 of a circle, the rotation stability should be improved against the conventional steel nail. The grooves between the longitudinal slides permit a quick revascularization of the endosteal bone. By selecting this geometrical shape, KUNTSCHER's principle5 of elastic clamping in sense of a transverse-clamping was consciously given up for the following reasons while keeping us the longitudinal clamping: To achieve a sufficient stability of the nail, trephining the medullary space and the subsequent driving-in of the nail is today considered as favorite method. An elastic transverse clamping of the KUNTSCHER intramedullary nail after trephining the medullary space is only in the area of distal metaphysis theoretically possible, as a complete trephining in the distal spongious area is not performed usually. According to our test data, an elastic transverse clamping requires a range in which the spongious bone would be destroyed; this means that the spongious bone is not able to resist sufficiently against the cloverleaf-shaped KUNTSCHER nail during the driving-in to make an elastic transverse clamping possible.